(OK, so I think with this post I will be caught up!)
How was Christmas? I just got back to work from the four day weekend and that is the favorite question. I have to say that it was a very nice Christmas. I had tried very hard not to have any expectations about how Katya would act (since you can't really predict anything with her) so this may have added to the pleasure. Katya was very grateful for all her gifts. She opened them up and said thank you and gave us big hugs after almost all of them. I don't really remember Allie saying thank you. This may be because Katya's reaction was just so much more appreciative so my saying this may not be very fair to Allie.
I don't know about you but when I was a kid, on Christmas Eve I was so excited to open my presents that I couldn't sleep. We would wake up at about 4 am and run into my parent's room and ask if it was time. They would always tell us not yet. This was repeated for the next hour and a half until they eventually decided that they were not really getting any extra sleep anyway and might as well get up. One of us used to sneak past my parent's room to the living room in order to get a glimpse of the "goodies" that Santa had brought and then we would sneak back to report to our brothers and sisters what we had saw. "Jeff, I saw a GI Joe toy that might be yours! Cathy, I saw a doll that might be yours!" Allie and Katya slept until 7:30 am and they did not wake of their own accord. Tony helped wake them up (with our prodding). I know - we should be thanking our lucky stars that we could have slept longer! The problem was that Alex and I were both hungry and we were going to my mom's for breakfast and couldn't do this until the gifts were opened. Even after Tony had sat on Katya's bed and pulled her hair for a bit, she still wanted to "keep sleeping". What's wrong with kids these days?
I said to my mom the other day: "Mom, thank you for all the Christmases you gave us and I am sorry if I ever made you feel that I didn't appreciate what you did for me". This was in response to the whole "Disneyland was boring" from Katya and I also never realized how hard it is to shop for two girls that are similar in age and to wrestle with the questions: "Should we get them both the same things? Will they feel bad if we do? Will they feel bad if we don't?" Alex and I came to the same conclusion that my mom had when we were younger - that you are better off getting them the exact same things because if you don't then you know that one or both of them will end up feeling bad. After all that shopping, when one of my coworkers asked me what we ended up getting them, do you know that I have a hard time recalling....Why is that? It seemed so important when you are shopping? I think I will really document what they got because you know that probably even they can't remember what they got - especially Allie, since she was only with us until 1 pm on Christmas, for 4 hours on Saturday, and then we don't see her again until January 6th! We could take all her presents back and she probably wouldn't even remember!
Allie: Skull Candy headphones, an outfit, nail polish design kit, shrinkie dinks, Bratz doll, stereo
Katya: Skull Candy headphones, an outfit, art books, shrinkie dinks, Bratz doll, stereo
An what did Alex and I get? Alex got an Xbox headset that allows him to play Xbox and nobody can hear him. I got a Wii Fit.
And what were the most popular Christmas gifts? The Super Mario Brothers Wii game, the Mario Cart Wii game, and the Wii Fit.
Overall, I think that Christmas was a success. And, as a bonus, Katya really hasn't complained about her chores or her bed time the last couple of days. Maybe she really was grateful? I am still reserving judgement on that...
Monday, December 28, 2009
Santa Claus
We took the kids to see Santa Claus on December 19th. We figured that we couldn't let Tony go through his first Christmas without seeing him and that it would be fun for Katya to see him too. I haven't quite figured out if Katya believes in Santa or not, as she sometimes says things that make me wonder. She told me that she saw Santa Claus on Christmas Eve at around 1 am. I am not sure if she is doing this in fun or not because I know for a fact that Santa didn't make an appearance until around 3:30 am :)
The line was horribly long. It took about an hour to get to the front and then they make you stand in another line to order pictures. We sent the two girls off with $60 (to supplement the $15 that they each had) to buy a present for Alex and I while we waited. I was a little worried that Katya would decide to not buy a present for Alex, as he had made her mad right before we set her and Allie loose. However, by the time we had seen Santa, Katya had "gotten over it" and she had me go and help pick out a shirt for Alex :)
On a side note: The incident does deserve explanation, as I find it somewhat amusing but at the same time "not so much". Katya has cut her bangs - twice. I was OK with the self-haircut the first time. Her bangs were just slightly below her forehead and they actually did look pretty cute and made her hair look a little less "straggly". The second time, however, she cut them to the middle of her forehead. I cut my hair once. I was five. I had just gotten home from church and for some reason I felt that I needed my bangs to be very short (The ironic thing is, that this also happened right before Christmas and I have the picture with Santa Claus to prove it). Katya is eleven and should really know better. On this particular occasion, Alex told her that if she cut her hair again, he would cut it all off, to which she was mad. I think that I have come to the conclusion that if Katya wants to cut her hair, she has that right. If she wants to look silly, she also has that right. So I have just let the incident go, with the original comment to Katya that I didn't think the barber job looked all the swell, but Alex has made a point to show Katya how only boys have bangs that go the middle of their forehead. I wonder if the point has sank in...
Tony got a little restless in the line. He wanted to practice walking to all the places that you don't want him to go and then when you get up closer to Santa they have all these fun toys to play with. The problem is, that the toys are definately more interesting to an eleven-month-old than a chubby man with white hair (who is he!). Needless to say, Tony's first picture with Santa is not a happy one! Oh well - at least we documented the occasion!
The line was horribly long. It took about an hour to get to the front and then they make you stand in another line to order pictures. We sent the two girls off with $60 (to supplement the $15 that they each had) to buy a present for Alex and I while we waited. I was a little worried that Katya would decide to not buy a present for Alex, as he had made her mad right before we set her and Allie loose. However, by the time we had seen Santa, Katya had "gotten over it" and she had me go and help pick out a shirt for Alex :)
On a side note: The incident does deserve explanation, as I find it somewhat amusing but at the same time "not so much". Katya has cut her bangs - twice. I was OK with the self-haircut the first time. Her bangs were just slightly below her forehead and they actually did look pretty cute and made her hair look a little less "straggly". The second time, however, she cut them to the middle of her forehead. I cut my hair once. I was five. I had just gotten home from church and for some reason I felt that I needed my bangs to be very short (The ironic thing is, that this also happened right before Christmas and I have the picture with Santa Claus to prove it). Katya is eleven and should really know better. On this particular occasion, Alex told her that if she cut her hair again, he would cut it all off, to which she was mad. I think that I have come to the conclusion that if Katya wants to cut her hair, she has that right. If she wants to look silly, she also has that right. So I have just let the incident go, with the original comment to Katya that I didn't think the barber job looked all the swell, but Alex has made a point to show Katya how only boys have bangs that go the middle of their forehead. I wonder if the point has sank in...
Tony got a little restless in the line. He wanted to practice walking to all the places that you don't want him to go and then when you get up closer to Santa they have all these fun toys to play with. The problem is, that the toys are definately more interesting to an eleven-month-old than a chubby man with white hair (who is he!). Needless to say, Tony's first picture with Santa is not a happy one! Oh well - at least we documented the occasion!
Trimming the Tree
Why is it called "Trimming the Tree"? I suppose if you had a real tree, you might really "trim" it, but for us it means pulling out all the Christmas decorations so that you can have a festive house for a couple of weeks and then have to put them all away again.Because we were gone to Disneyland for that week, we didn't get around to pulling out the decorations until December 16th. I thought Katya would be very excited about it but she really wasn't. She was excited to see her "sock" (it took me a couple of tries to understand that she was talking about her stocking to hang over the fireplace) and then she was extremely disappointed that it was the "same" as all the other socks (they need to match the decore, don't they?). So, that may have contributed to her lack of interest, along with the fact that Alex put a movie in which was obviously much more entertaining. I tried really hard not to let this bother me because after all - if a kid doesn't want to help decorate why should you have to fight them to do it? Alex had to take Allie home so it was just me and Tony (Tony will be awesome help when it comes time to take down the ornaments!) for a while. Katya did eventually come and help decorate the tree in the living room and thinking back on this makes me feel really bad because I had intended on taking Katya to Hallmark so she could pick out an ornament that was "hers" but never did it. Darn! Where does the time go?
Anyway, the decorations made it up and now, as of the date of this post, they will be coming down in approximately one more week. Oh what fun it is!
Grandma Taylor's Christmas Party
My mom loves Christmas. When we were kids, despite the fact that there wasn't much money left over after feeding and clothing ten mouths, my mom always seemed to have enough money to make Christmas special for us. Although we didn't get as many presents as some of my friends did, we were grateful for the presents that we did get. Once we got older, Christmas wasn't as fun and now that my mom has twelve grandkids to spoil, her love of Christmas is back!
She had a Christmas Party on December 23rd. We all brought hors devours, she had the kids decorate her tree downstairs, she pulled out the jingle bells for the kids to carol with and the puppets for the kids to perform the traditional "Night Before Christmas" show. Despite the fact that my mom made the mistake of telling Allie that she was "in charge" of decorating the downstairs tree, to which Allie appointed herself the "boss" over my two "not so willing to be bossed around" eight-year-old nieces, the kids actually managed the decorating without any broken ornaments and very few tears shed. Even Katya joined in the fun, after some minor grumbling from being pulled away from the computer. 
The kids loved shaking the jingle bells while singing and my mom taught them a couple of songs that she used to sing when she was a little girl. 
The kids were very entertaining with their rendition of the Night Before Christmas (somehow the Nephi puppet kept popping up during the story - imagine that!). The tears shed by my nephew, Ethan, in response to Santa's sack of toys being taken away from him, only added to the hilarity of the show! 
My mom is an awesome gift giver. In fact, according to Alex, my mom has surpassed his giving skills and is now awarded the Best Gift Giver prize. I, on the other hand, rank towards the bottom of his list of gift givers. I will admit that in the past I have given him gifts that were not very creative or expensive or spectacular (when we were dating, I once gave him a basketball for his birthday and a cordless phone for Christmas, to which he has never let me forget how much he didn't like these presents). However, I have to say that Alex is not top on my list of gift receivers. He takes back almost everything I get for him, making the act not very fun to begin with.My mom knitted all the granddaughters "scrump" dolls and all the grandsons "sackboy" dolls. Alex started her on this project. For those of you that may not know who these characters are: Scrump is the doll from Lilo and Stitch - the doll that Lilo makes to play with the other girls because she couldn't afford a real doll - and Sackboy is a video game character. Alex read about a knitting pattern for the Sackboy doll in one of this gaming magazines and was thereafter on a quest to track down the knitting magazine that held the pattern (how funny is that! Can you imagine Alex in Barnes and Nobles asking them if they had the most recent "Knitting" magazine?) so that my mom could make this doll for Tony. Once the pattern was secured, he noticed that the size of it was also very similar to Allie's Scrump doll. We had bought Allie a Scrump doll right before the movie came out (seven years ago?) and Allie has carried that doll around everywhere, including Disneyland, left it at many different stores (good thing we put our name and number on the tag), used it as a sweat rag and that poor doll looks like it is about one hundred years old. The problem is, Scrump dolls are very hard to come by. On eBay, you could buy a replacement doll for about $100! So, Alex also requested that my mom make Allie a new Scrump doll. Good thing my mom likes Alex so much :)
Allie and Katya loved the dolls and the party was a screaming success - literally! By the end of the night, twelve kids together, mixed with them all being tired, made for a whole lot of screaming going on!Thursday, December 17, 2009
Disneyland
I have been working on this Disneyland post for a couple of weeks and may actually finish it at some point. We have been so busy with Christmas that I haven't had time. I am glad that I tried to write down some stuff while we were on our trip so that when I ever get around to scrapbooking it, I have my journaling already done.
Day 1 (December 7, 2009): Destination = Las Vegas
Alex and I love Disneyland so when my brother, Jeff, his wife Audra, his three kids, and my mom and dad were going, we decided to tag along. They all flew but since we didn't really have the money to go in the first place, we were stuck with driving. We have never been to Disneyland in December and were very excited to see it all dressed up with Christmas decorations.
We of course picked the worst week in December to go. Prior to our week, the weather was sunny and 70's and even the week after the forecast was sunny and 70's but our week held a forecast of rain and high 50's. Ugh! After hearing on the news the night before we were leaving that you should avoid driving south if at all possible because there was going to be major snow, we attempted to move our departure time up a couple of hours to avoid the snow in the dark. However, we both got delayed at work, we still had to put the luggage in the car, print out directions, pick up a couple of last-minute items at the store and we ended up having to bandage a finger and comfort a little boy who we believe got his finger "caught" in our gineau pig, Shadow's, mouth. I got home at the tail-end of the first aid incident, after the bandage had been applied and the intial tears had been shed, but as soon as Tony saw me the tears started again and he had to "tell" me all about what happened (he kept holding his finger up and doing a combination of whining and crying in such a way that it really was as if he was trying to explain it all!).
We were officially on the road at 4:10 pm. At 4:20 pm, Katya asked if we were "all done". At 4:30 pm Katya asked again if we were "all done". This girl brings all new meaning to the phrase "Are we there yet?" Tony slept for the first three hours but woke up anxious to get out of his car seat and was hard to console for the next two hours. The snow wasn't really too bad until just after Cedar City. It was coming down pretty hard and despite Alex's attempt to impress the girls by turning on his "brights" so that the fast-moving white snow was more pronounced (Katya's response to this was disinterest - at least Allie gave him a courtesy half-laugh!), Katya at least seemed to recognize the danger in the situation and asked "Daddy, are you OK?" The snow turned to rain right before St. George, where we stopped for dinner at the In-and-Out, which was not quite the event for Alex that it would have been even a month ago - before the In-and-Out opened in Draper.
It was 11:30 pm when we arrived in Vegas. Katya was asleep and got pretty grumpy when we made her wake up to see the lights but hey! - this was the only chance she would get to see the lights of Vegas in the dark. And what did she think of it? She did seem impressed with all the lights and Alex drove down "The Strip" and narrated what all the places were. Katya didn't like the stale cigarette smoke smell in the casino, though (I found this funny since that is a very common smell in the Ukraine). Katya said that the casino was "dangerous". I think this was in part because of the smell but she also seemed to recognize the "aura" of Vegas - the drinking and gambling atmosphere - despite the fact that compared to the usual craziness of Vegas it was "dead". Vegas was cold, even the next day. I have never been to Vegas when it was cold; I guess I thought that it was always hot - hot like the depths of hell :)
Day 2 (December 8, 2009): Destination - Disneyland
We drove the rest of the way to Disneyland in the morning. We actually arrived there about 20 minutes before my parents and brother, who had missed there flight because of all the snow that had fallen back home. After checking in to the hotel, meeting up with my brother and his family and my parents for lunch, we made it to Disneyland at around 4 pm. It was cold and Katya didn't let us forget it, as she reminded us every couple of minutes about how cold she was. My brother and parents were heading back to the hotel room at about 6 pm and we were going to send the babies (Tony and Katya) with them so we could go over to California Adventure to ride some of the "big kid" rides. We gave Katya one last chance to stay and it might have been my statement that I was also cold but that we had driven a really long time to just go back to the hotel room and sit that made her decide to stay with us.
We took her on the Tower of Terror. She cried - not tears of joy but real tears of terror. We were actually surprised at that, seeing how she loves roller coasters. But I think it was the dark and the unknown of the ride that made it so terrifying to her. We told her that Allie had cried when she went on that ride the first time to but that later the same day Allie decided to go on it again and this was probably what contributed to the fact that Katya had to "save face" and make sure that she went on it three more times over the course of our trip.
Alex got some real mileage out of her being scared. He kept telling her that every ride was scary because it went "up and down". I can still see Katya nodding resigned on the Star Tours ride, after Alex had told her that the ride was scarey because it went "up and down", white-knuckled clenching the chair rests, ready for the worst. Of course, after this ride the whole "up and down" threat lost it's seriousness, since Star Tours is definately not scary in Katya's book! The next time that Alex tried to tell her a ride was scary, Katya replied, "Daddy, you're joking at me!"
Day 3 - 6: Disneyland
This is the point that I stopped writing stuff down so I will have to go off of memory. I'm still trying to decide whether I like Disneyland in December. Of course, I loved the decorations and the short lines but I really didn't love the cold. I know that it was 58 degrees in Anaheim and it was 9 degrees at home but when you come to California, you really want it to be warm enough that you can wear shorts. We made Katya and Allie wear a skirt one day, so that we could get a really cute Christmas picture but it was really too cold for the skirt and I am glad that they didn't complain too much. Allie was bound-and-determined to wear shorts the next day (which explains the goofy leggings-under-the-shorts look that I hate), although Katya sensibly opted to change into pants when I explained that if they wore shorts they couldn't complain about being cold. I think Alex and I have concluded that we will take the long lines, the better fireworks show, and the many more characters that are roaming about in the summer months to the December experience.
One of the nice thing about Disneyland is that there are a lot of rides that Tony can go on. Tony went on the astro-orbiter, Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Pirates of the Carribean, the Haunted Mansion, Winnie the Pooh, Roger Rabbit, and almost all the rides in "It's a Bug's Life". He also got to see "Honey I shrunk the Audience", the "Muppets Show", and the "It's Tough to be a Bug" show. And what did he think? He cried on some of them - when he had to get off. I guess that means that he is a Disneyland lover, too!
Overall, Katya did pretty well. Although there were times that I could have sworn that we had brought two babies along with us and she seemed to always be wanting to do something that we were NOT doing at the time, she took Alex's lectures about "not bumping into the people in front of you in line" and "not climbing on the rock and bars around the line that are not meant for climbing" pretty well. She would only pout for a couple of minutes and then move on. We did leave her sitting by the stroller because she seemed to think that would be funner than waiting in line for 20 minutes for the Nemo ride and then actually getting to ride it!
I have to say that Alex was more patient with her than I was. I was going to have no part of her little pouting episodes and Alex was more willing to play her game and cheer her up (or distract her) so that everybody was in a pretty good mood for most of the trip. I thought the trip was a success until the Sunday after we got home (we drove home on Saturday) when we asked Katya to do some chores. In response to her complaining about the unfairness of it all, we reminded her about how much money and time we had spent to take them to Disneyland and Katya told us that it was boring. Ahh! It makes it all worth it doesn't it? I told Alex that the next time we should take a trip without the kids since they don't appreciate it anyway.
Day 1 (December 7, 2009): Destination = Las Vegas
Alex and I love Disneyland so when my brother, Jeff, his wife Audra, his three kids, and my mom and dad were going, we decided to tag along. They all flew but since we didn't really have the money to go in the first place, we were stuck with driving. We have never been to Disneyland in December and were very excited to see it all dressed up with Christmas decorations.
We of course picked the worst week in December to go. Prior to our week, the weather was sunny and 70's and even the week after the forecast was sunny and 70's but our week held a forecast of rain and high 50's. Ugh! After hearing on the news the night before we were leaving that you should avoid driving south if at all possible because there was going to be major snow, we attempted to move our departure time up a couple of hours to avoid the snow in the dark. However, we both got delayed at work, we still had to put the luggage in the car, print out directions, pick up a couple of last-minute items at the store and we ended up having to bandage a finger and comfort a little boy who we believe got his finger "caught" in our gineau pig, Shadow's, mouth. I got home at the tail-end of the first aid incident, after the bandage had been applied and the intial tears had been shed, but as soon as Tony saw me the tears started again and he had to "tell" me all about what happened (he kept holding his finger up and doing a combination of whining and crying in such a way that it really was as if he was trying to explain it all!).
We were officially on the road at 4:10 pm. At 4:20 pm, Katya asked if we were "all done". At 4:30 pm Katya asked again if we were "all done". This girl brings all new meaning to the phrase "Are we there yet?" Tony slept for the first three hours but woke up anxious to get out of his car seat and was hard to console for the next two hours. The snow wasn't really too bad until just after Cedar City. It was coming down pretty hard and despite Alex's attempt to impress the girls by turning on his "brights" so that the fast-moving white snow was more pronounced (Katya's response to this was disinterest - at least Allie gave him a courtesy half-laugh!), Katya at least seemed to recognize the danger in the situation and asked "Daddy, are you OK?" The snow turned to rain right before St. George, where we stopped for dinner at the In-and-Out, which was not quite the event for Alex that it would have been even a month ago - before the In-and-Out opened in Draper.
It was 11:30 pm when we arrived in Vegas. Katya was asleep and got pretty grumpy when we made her wake up to see the lights but hey! - this was the only chance she would get to see the lights of Vegas in the dark. And what did she think of it? She did seem impressed with all the lights and Alex drove down "The Strip" and narrated what all the places were. Katya didn't like the stale cigarette smoke smell in the casino, though (I found this funny since that is a very common smell in the Ukraine). Katya said that the casino was "dangerous". I think this was in part because of the smell but she also seemed to recognize the "aura" of Vegas - the drinking and gambling atmosphere - despite the fact that compared to the usual craziness of Vegas it was "dead". Vegas was cold, even the next day. I have never been to Vegas when it was cold; I guess I thought that it was always hot - hot like the depths of hell :)
Day 2 (December 8, 2009): Destination - Disneyland
We drove the rest of the way to Disneyland in the morning. We actually arrived there about 20 minutes before my parents and brother, who had missed there flight because of all the snow that had fallen back home. After checking in to the hotel, meeting up with my brother and his family and my parents for lunch, we made it to Disneyland at around 4 pm. It was cold and Katya didn't let us forget it, as she reminded us every couple of minutes about how cold she was. My brother and parents were heading back to the hotel room at about 6 pm and we were going to send the babies (Tony and Katya) with them so we could go over to California Adventure to ride some of the "big kid" rides. We gave Katya one last chance to stay and it might have been my statement that I was also cold but that we had driven a really long time to just go back to the hotel room and sit that made her decide to stay with us.We took her on the Tower of Terror. She cried - not tears of joy but real tears of terror. We were actually surprised at that, seeing how she loves roller coasters. But I think it was the dark and the unknown of the ride that made it so terrifying to her. We told her that Allie had cried when she went on that ride the first time to but that later the same day Allie decided to go on it again and this was probably what contributed to the fact that Katya had to "save face" and make sure that she went on it three more times over the course of our trip.
Alex got some real mileage out of her being scared. He kept telling her that every ride was scary because it went "up and down". I can still see Katya nodding resigned on the Star Tours ride, after Alex had told her that the ride was scarey because it went "up and down", white-knuckled clenching the chair rests, ready for the worst. Of course, after this ride the whole "up and down" threat lost it's seriousness, since Star Tours is definately not scary in Katya's book! The next time that Alex tried to tell her a ride was scary, Katya replied, "Daddy, you're joking at me!"
Day 3 - 6: Disneyland
This is the point that I stopped writing stuff down so I will have to go off of memory. I'm still trying to decide whether I like Disneyland in December. Of course, I loved the decorations and the short lines but I really didn't love the cold. I know that it was 58 degrees in Anaheim and it was 9 degrees at home but when you come to California, you really want it to be warm enough that you can wear shorts. We made Katya and Allie wear a skirt one day, so that we could get a really cute Christmas picture but it was really too cold for the skirt and I am glad that they didn't complain too much. Allie was bound-and-determined to wear shorts the next day (which explains the goofy leggings-under-the-shorts look that I hate), although Katya sensibly opted to change into pants when I explained that if they wore shorts they couldn't complain about being cold. I think Alex and I have concluded that we will take the long lines, the better fireworks show, and the many more characters that are roaming about in the summer months to the December experience.One of the nice thing about Disneyland is that there are a lot of rides that Tony can go on. Tony went on the astro-orbiter, Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Pirates of the Carribean, the Haunted Mansion, Winnie the Pooh, Roger Rabbit, and almost all the rides in "It's a Bug's Life". He also got to see "Honey I shrunk the Audience", the "Muppets Show", and the "It's Tough to be a Bug" show. And what did he think? He cried on some of them - when he had to get off. I guess that means that he is a Disneyland lover, too!Overall, Katya did pretty well. Although there were times that I could have sworn that we had brought two babies along with us and she seemed to always be wanting to do something that we were NOT doing at the time, she took Alex's lectures about "not bumping into the people in front of you in line" and "not climbing on the rock and bars around the line that are not meant for climbing" pretty well. She would only pout for a couple of minutes and then move on. We did leave her sitting by the stroller because she seemed to think that would be funner than waiting in line for 20 minutes for the Nemo ride and then actually getting to ride it!
I have to say that Alex was more patient with her than I was. I was going to have no part of her little pouting episodes and Alex was more willing to play her game and cheer her up (or distract her) so that everybody was in a pretty good mood for most of the trip. I thought the trip was a success until the Sunday after we got home (we drove home on Saturday) when we asked Katya to do some chores. In response to her complaining about the unfairness of it all, we reminded her about how much money and time we had spent to take them to Disneyland and Katya told us that it was boring. Ahh! It makes it all worth it doesn't it? I told Alex that the next time we should take a trip without the kids since they don't appreciate it anyway.
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